The European Central Bank bought a record-high €20 billion ($22 billion) in sovereign bonds in the week to March 27, the Eurosystem’s consolidated financial statement revealed today (March 31).

The central bank carried out these purchases under the Public Sector Purchase Programme (PSPP), the sovereign-debt part of the institution’s Asset Purchase Programme (APP). Nonetheless, the statement does not include acquisitions carried out under the new €750 billion Pandemic Emergency Purchase